NHS reports fall in numbers of blind

The number of registered blind people in the UK is at its lowest level for the past 10 years, according to latest NHS statistics.

Between 1982 and 1997 the number of people registered as blind increased steadily from 112,000 to 159,000. However, since then numbers have dropped by 4 per cent, most noticeably between 2003 and 2006 when cases fell by 3 per cent to 152,000.

The report entitled People Registered as Blind and Partially Sighted 2006 England found that the number of registered partially sighted people has levelled out at 155,000 between 2003 and 2006. This is in contrast to a sharp rise from 58,000 in 1982 to 149,000 in 2000.